LAS VEGAS — The Loyal Order of the General Santos City Manny
Pacquiao Marching and Chowder Society sat down for a light snack in their hero’s
suite at the MGM Hotel yesterday around noon.

A quick count set the student body at 24 Filipinos, one Canadian
and one dog of undetermined ancestry. But, they came and went and ate so quickly
the unofficial scorekeeper may have missed a few dozen.

All right, there’s nothing unusual in this because this is the way
it’s always been when Manny comes to town.

But this is not the usual pre-fight week in the life of the only
man in history ever to win eight — count ’em, eight — world titles. The truth
is, until further evidence reaches the jury on Saturday night, we cannot even be
sure that this is the same Manny Pacquiao whose exploits launched a million
newspaper adjectives.

You think this is business as usual? Not exactly. There are
strange sights, sounds and sub-plots echoing through the command post of Camp
Manny ... things like well-known eminent Biblical scholar, theologian and
professor of the three-punch combination, Dr. Freddie Roach, patiently telling
his tiger that "the Bible says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" in his
concerted effort to remind his protégé, who hasn’t recorded a knockout since
2009, that it is far more blessed to give than receive.

And it wasn’t even Sunday.

Or the moment the good doctor called aside one of the two pastors
Pacquiao has brought with him from home to request he not awaken the fighter to
pray at 5 a.m. because, the way the doctor understands it, God is on a 24/7
schedule — but Manny is not.

Is it possible that Manny, who has been so aggressive ... so
sensational ... so physically overwhelming ... so dominating since he first
grabbed all of boxing by its jugular vein ... is it possible through that very
demanding style he has fought too many wars and stayed too long at the fair?

"That can happen and you never know," Roach admitted. "But the
only way I can judge that now, is in the gym. He doesn’t miss a step there and
he is still the hardest worker in the building. The day before we left Los
Angeles he did 48 three-minute rounds of work and I had to slow him down."

Manny insists he is driven by what he considers the disrespect his
opponent has shown him.

Toward that end, consider the relentless battle of the psyche
waged by Tim Bradley, the man who won a championship from him by doing little
more than standing erect while two of the three judges turned in scorecards that
might as well have been filled out by official observers with the vision of
over-aged bats.

Tim Bradley has a will of iron along with what Manny called "okay
boxing skills" but he took Manny’s title in what most consider an outrageous
form of the judges incompetence. During their promotional tour for the rematch
he has waged a raucous filibuster trumpeting the message that the fire within
Manny, so necessary in the business they have chosen, has turned colder than the
ashes of last evening’s barbecue pit.

Bradley considers this an atomic weapon of sorts in his battle to
insert major self-doubts into what he hopes are Pacquiao’s sleepless nights. But
Pacquiao told me over his lunch the other day:

"I think he is trying to convince himself that he won the first
fight and that he can win this one. I think he needs to say it more than I need
to hear it."

And Dr. Roach, seeing good in all creatures big and small that
same morning expressed his own thoughts on the subject:

"I think he (Bradley) did us a huge favor. Manny did a television
show with Bradley, which is where Bradley first said it. I was sitting outside
the studio with Fred Sternberg, the Top Rank publicist, and we watched it on a
monitor and when it was over, Manny came out he said ‘did you hear that?’ " and
Dr. Roach innocently replied:

"My goodness, sakes alive. That’s terrible disrespect." Quite
naturally he has repeated that ad lib mantra every day since to Manny.

"You know," Manny told me, "what I need to prove I already have
proven. This guy is trying to prove to himself he won the fight — but I was
there. I know the truth."

So how will he fight him this time? Can he reach down and stoke
the fire that once made him the hottest of the world’s hot fighters? What will
be the difference in his view?

He smiled and then he said, "Oh, I have a plan."

And the he smiled again, repeating to himself as much as to anyone
else: